It’s crazy that our government can just openly collaborate with Big Tech to control the spread of information. Twitter was supposed to be a town square where everyone could express their opinions without censure. As someone born in a Communist country where the government does in fact control the entire media apparatus, I hate to see that this is also happening in America. It completely goes against what it means to have a democracy.
We the people should not let the government control how we think via mass media. Governments have long used emergencies as an excuse to impose totalitarian rule. We must not let that happen in America. I’m glad we still have sites like Substack where free speech can thrive, where I can write my political opinions down without fear of being imprisoned for them. Thank God for free speech. Let’s hope the government doesn’t try to take more and more of it away from us.
My favorite Democrat Science Argument™️ in favor of the Biden Injection™️ was the one about how VAERS is unreliable so a spike in adverse events doesn’t really mean anything.
It’s hilarious because that isn’t an argument that the COVID vaccine is safe. It’s actually an argument that we don’t really know if *any* vaccines are safe, because that’s how we monitor their safety. So if VAERS doesn’t work then it’s not great.
Why have you not addressed the 800 lb gorilla? Many physicians who pointed out the value of repurposed drugs; hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, fluvoximine, vitamins c and d, povidone, p were suspended from Twitter and ridiculed and lost licenses thanks to Twitter's draconian policies. Do you need a list of Dr's? I understand you have an Atlantic magazine rep to uphold but don't bother bringing this half hearted weak sauce to the discussion if you think glossing over the big issue works w this crowd.
Gross. We all suffered from this and we haven't recovered yet, maybe never will. It's much worse than COVID itself. No more "trusting the experts" for us, and this is an immesurable loss.
While the serious journalists investigating this stuff deserve our gratitude, I surely can't be the only one who saw this power game for what it was early on. It seemed to me obvious. The government wanted its way and Twitter, et al let them have it. Sad to say, perhaps, but to me it's already old news. The bigger story is the covert corruption of government by unelected bureaucrats. Until that is given full airing, we're just playing the same old parlor game.
I have worked closely with the feds for almost 25 yrs. Mostly I have worked in DoD, but some time at the FBI and with other IC agencies. Worked at the Federal Reserve, the FCC, the FDIC and Treasury. Spent a short time at HHS, CDC and DHS.
I'm also a student of history and I have read a lot of the history of our government, particularly since WWII.
I also live and work in the DC area.
I'm telling you that you have to be willfully ignorant to not understand the danger that a federal bureaucracy poses to civil liberties even when the intentions are basically good. Incompetence and ignorance can permeate the machine. Misaligned incentives and political pressures just add to the problem. Throw in politics in the form of congressional pressure, directly or from staff or political appointees, which itself is often derived from influential donors and you start to see how even the best intentions can become corrupted. Now toss in the fact that most of the people we are talking about live in a wealthy, powerful bubble, that they are to a large degree arrogant as to their own intelligence, and you see how things like this can happen. (Never forget that 3 of the countries 5 wealthiest counties surround DC)
The ideologues and Grievance Studies major moonlighting as Twitter employees led the charge in shutting down debate, inquiry, and skepticism — all integral to real science — and instead enforced a culture of counterproductive moralism, in this case unilaterally deciding to override dissenting experts in an area of core competence during the middle of a pandemic.
Great reporting, thank you for this and for all your work against lockdown. While undeniably true that it behaved terribly, even if Twitter had allowed dissenting voices, I don’t know what difference it would have made when literally every “mainstream” medical authority was all in on Covid madness. The American academy of pediatrics literally lied about basic info on child development and then blatantly scrubbed evidence from their own website! You wrote a great piece about the AAP I linked at the time that showed the totalitarian measures they were taking against their own members:
Even with Twitter not censoring, the corrupt medical establishment would have gone into overdrive to strip doctors of careers, and to plant fake stories in the news. Freeing Twitter isn’t enough, AAP delenda est!
Sure Twitter acted badly and peremptorily but they can't steal our liberty. Our all powerful government, however, can and they did. So my real problem is with the Biden cabal, their crooked FBI Stasi pukes, their media flacks and legions of wannabe docs and Karens hectoring people and whining and scolding that "Jesus would have mandated the vaccine."
As Dr. Kulldorff sagely noted, it was known early on that the virus was a disease of the elderly and infirm and there was no need to imprison the young and the healthy. Even less need to vaccinate them with an experimental vaccine. Question is what game were the Democrats playing to suppress the truth, mandate the vaccine and ruin the economy? More important, why? This is a good start but we need to smash open this web of lies and bring the malefactors to justice.
This is a story of complete governmental overreach that violated citizens' rights to free speech. Yes, Twitter is a private company, so there is no Free Speech violation if the suppression were linked only to Twitter.
But, here there is evidence of overt state action. This is a story of gross government overreach, that suppressed critical debate and questioning, that led to fiat policies, business regulations and civil liberty lockdowns, that weren't based on evidence, that caused many, many citizens to lose their constitutionally-protected liberties. Thank you for the article, but what's next?
It’s crazy that our government can just openly collaborate with Big Tech to control the spread of information. Twitter was supposed to be a town square where everyone could express their opinions without censure. As someone born in a Communist country where the government does in fact control the entire media apparatus, I hate to see that this is also happening in America. It completely goes against what it means to have a democracy.
We the people should not let the government control how we think via mass media. Governments have long used emergencies as an excuse to impose totalitarian rule. We must not let that happen in America. I’m glad we still have sites like Substack where free speech can thrive, where I can write my political opinions down without fear of being imprisoned for them. Thank God for free speech. Let’s hope the government doesn’t try to take more and more of it away from us.
There's a word for the union of state and corporate power. I believe they call it "fascism."
My favorite Democrat Science Argument™️ in favor of the Biden Injection™️ was the one about how VAERS is unreliable so a spike in adverse events doesn’t really mean anything.
It’s hilarious because that isn’t an argument that the COVID vaccine is safe. It’s actually an argument that we don’t really know if *any* vaccines are safe, because that’s how we monitor their safety. So if VAERS doesn’t work then it’s not great.
Good lord these people are psychopaths.
Why have you not addressed the 800 lb gorilla? Many physicians who pointed out the value of repurposed drugs; hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, fluvoximine, vitamins c and d, povidone, p were suspended from Twitter and ridiculed and lost licenses thanks to Twitter's draconian policies. Do you need a list of Dr's? I understand you have an Atlantic magazine rep to uphold but don't bother bringing this half hearted weak sauce to the discussion if you think glossing over the big issue works w this crowd.
Trump admin not wanting people to panic buy food is not equivalent to silencing hundreds of doctors opinions who signed the GBD.
Thank you for publishing this article. We must continue this discussion over and over again.
Gross. We all suffered from this and we haven't recovered yet, maybe never will. It's much worse than COVID itself. No more "trusting the experts" for us, and this is an immesurable loss.
I just realized that the reason they used the mRNA vaccines is because of how unpopular the wRNA is.
It’s a Brittney Griner joke. Sorry.
“One aarea of so-called misinformation: “runs on grocery stores.” The trouble is that it wasn't misinformation: There actually were runs on goods.”
-----------------------------------------
I remember when toilet paper was hard to find because that’s when I did the joke about how people who have toilet paper have ‘wipe privilege’.
It’s one of my best jokes.
While the serious journalists investigating this stuff deserve our gratitude, I surely can't be the only one who saw this power game for what it was early on. It seemed to me obvious. The government wanted its way and Twitter, et al let them have it. Sad to say, perhaps, but to me it's already old news. The bigger story is the covert corruption of government by unelected bureaucrats. Until that is given full airing, we're just playing the same old parlor game.
To further the examples of how this censorship can spread, consider that California (where else?) doctors risk losing their license to practice medicine if they contradict public health orthodoxy. We are becoming the totalitarian regime of the type we have long criticized. We have to push back while we still can. https://californiaacep.org/news/618676/Newsom-signs-bill-to-police-California-doctors-on-COVID-19-misinformation.htm
I have worked closely with the feds for almost 25 yrs. Mostly I have worked in DoD, but some time at the FBI and with other IC agencies. Worked at the Federal Reserve, the FCC, the FDIC and Treasury. Spent a short time at HHS, CDC and DHS.
I'm also a student of history and I have read a lot of the history of our government, particularly since WWII.
I also live and work in the DC area.
I'm telling you that you have to be willfully ignorant to not understand the danger that a federal bureaucracy poses to civil liberties even when the intentions are basically good. Incompetence and ignorance can permeate the machine. Misaligned incentives and political pressures just add to the problem. Throw in politics in the form of congressional pressure, directly or from staff or political appointees, which itself is often derived from influential donors and you start to see how even the best intentions can become corrupted. Now toss in the fact that most of the people we are talking about live in a wealthy, powerful bubble, that they are to a large degree arrogant as to their own intelligence, and you see how things like this can happen. (Never forget that 3 of the countries 5 wealthiest counties surround DC)
The ideologues and Grievance Studies major moonlighting as Twitter employees led the charge in shutting down debate, inquiry, and skepticism — all integral to real science — and instead enforced a culture of counterproductive moralism, in this case unilaterally deciding to override dissenting experts in an area of core competence during the middle of a pandemic.
https://euphoricrecall.substack.com/p/the-twitter-files-part-ii-censoring
Great reporting, thank you for this and for all your work against lockdown. While undeniably true that it behaved terribly, even if Twitter had allowed dissenting voices, I don’t know what difference it would have made when literally every “mainstream” medical authority was all in on Covid madness. The American academy of pediatrics literally lied about basic info on child development and then blatantly scrubbed evidence from their own website! You wrote a great piece about the AAP I linked at the time that showed the totalitarian measures they were taking against their own members:
https://gaty.substack.com/p/the-truth-about-studies
Even with Twitter not censoring, the corrupt medical establishment would have gone into overdrive to strip doctors of careers, and to plant fake stories in the news. Freeing Twitter isn’t enough, AAP delenda est!
HOLD ON......
Sure Twitter acted badly and peremptorily but they can't steal our liberty. Our all powerful government, however, can and they did. So my real problem is with the Biden cabal, their crooked FBI Stasi pukes, their media flacks and legions of wannabe docs and Karens hectoring people and whining and scolding that "Jesus would have mandated the vaccine."
As Dr. Kulldorff sagely noted, it was known early on that the virus was a disease of the elderly and infirm and there was no need to imprison the young and the healthy. Even less need to vaccinate them with an experimental vaccine. Question is what game were the Democrats playing to suppress the truth, mandate the vaccine and ruin the economy? More important, why? This is a good start but we need to smash open this web of lies and bring the malefactors to justice.
This is a story of complete governmental overreach that violated citizens' rights to free speech. Yes, Twitter is a private company, so there is no Free Speech violation if the suppression were linked only to Twitter.
But, here there is evidence of overt state action. This is a story of gross government overreach, that suppressed critical debate and questioning, that led to fiat policies, business regulations and civil liberty lockdowns, that weren't based on evidence, that caused many, many citizens to lose their constitutionally-protected liberties. Thank you for the article, but what's next?